The Open Series is coming to Washington D.C. this weekend for what will almost certainly be one of the most exciting weekends of Magic in a long time.
Standard gets a boost with Fate Reforged coming online, while Legacy and Modern just had some big bannings. With an Open and two Premier IQs, it’s going to
be tough to not tune in to SCGLive and see how it all unfolds. Luckily, I will be one of the many who shows up to compete, but there still is some work to
get done before the dust settles. I will hopefully only be participating in the Standard Open this weekend, but my testing will determine that outcome.
Testing for a new format always comes down to gauntlet preparation. If the decks you’re testing against aren’t correct, the final product will always be
fairly mediocre. Either your gauntlet of decks is filled with weak lists or completely different from what people are actually doing. Either way, you will
be left with a misbuilt 75 if you didn’t have the right tools to sharpen your weapon of choice. I’ve been playing a decent amount of Magic this week in
preparation for this weekend and thought it would be fun to go through my entire gauntlet and see how close I actually get to what people bring to the
event.
Creatures (14)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (20)
- 4 Chained to the Rocks
- 4 Lightning Strike
- 2 Searing Blood
- 4 Stoke the Flames
- 4 Hordeling Outburst
- 2 Valorous Stance
Sideboard
One of the over-performing decks thus far has been R/W Aggro. Valorous Stance might be the only new inclusion to this deck, but it wasn’t like the deck
needed much of a boost. One of the biggest problems for this archetype has always been Courser of Kruphix and Siege Rhino. These two cards in conjunction
are difficult for R/W decks to deal with outside of having Chained to the Rocks. Every other removal spell the deck might play can kill either one or the
other, but that is rarely good enough. Just one on the board for more than a turn gives the green deck enough time to come back from any early aggression.
Valorous Stance is exactly what a deck like this needed to fight back against the Abzan menace.
Another significant upgrade this deck got was the fact that the metagame should slowly move away from Whip of Erebos. The graveyard strategies won’t
disappear, but Ugin, the Spirit Dragon should force most of the players out of the midrange safe-zone that we have spent so many months building around. We
finally have a “go over the top” spell that was needed to keep the format rotating.
Both of these things help a deck like R/W Aggro start playing Searing Blood again, which should help out against decks like Jeskai Tokens and other
Rabblemaster style decks.
As you can see, I don’t have a single copy of Soulfire Grand Master or Monastery Mentor in this deck. I know that both of these cards are great in their
own ways, but I have yet to see them overperform. Goblin Rabblemaster and Seeker of the Way have proven to be better than these cards in all of my testing,
and I would be shocked to be proven otherwise. What excites me most about those two cards is not how they simply replace Seeker of the Way and Goblin
Rabblemaster but create new archetypes just for them. I haven’t been able to figure those decks out for myself yet, but I will sure be looking for as long
as those two cards haven’t found a home. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was too late already.
Creatures (26)
- 2 Hornet Queen
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Polukranos, World Eater
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 4 Voyaging Satyr
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Genesis Hydra
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (24)
Spells (4)
Do you know what the best thing about Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is? The answer is casting it alongside Nissa, Worldwaker on turn 4. That’s right, we can put
both planeswalkers into play on turn 4 with the proper draw. The funny thing is there are draws where you can’t cast Ugin, the Spirit Dragon on turn 4
unless you also have Nissa, Worldwaker!
It all starts with a turn three Frontier Siege accelerated by any mana accelerant. On turn 4, you use the two mana from Frontier Siege and tap three lands
to cast Nissa, Worldwaker. Then you pass to your second main phase where there will be two more mana waiting for you because Frontier Siege is busted.
That’s when you play and tap your fourth Forest and untap all four using Nissa. From there you tap your mana accelerant and viola!, you have eight mana for
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon!
What is there to really say about this deck? You ramp as hard as you can and get Ugin, the Spirit Dragon into play as soon as possible. Hornet Queen and
Polukranos, World Eater are also in there to help out, but the real story is Ugin and his love for messing stuff up! Genesis Hydra is only here to find the
maddening mythic but can do double duty in other places.
This deck is great against everything except control game 1, and bad against anyone prepared for this strategy after sideboard. I wanted so bad to just
show up to the Open with this deck and surprise everyone, but I can’t overcome my inability to control my own fate with a deck like this. I also couldn’t
find a way for this to ever beat a control deck.
Creatures (2)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (27)
Spells (27)
I’m not even going to get into the numbers of this list or state that this is what the deck should look like due to how sensitive those U/B Control players
are. I’m just going to say that this is the list I have been playing, and I defend nothing! Nothing!
Creatures (24)
- 3 Hornet Queen
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Satyr Wayfinder
- 2 Doomwake Giant
- 1 Soul of Innistrad
- 4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
- 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Lands (24)
Spells (12)
Sultai Reanimator has been one of the underperforming decks even though it has had the most tender loving care. This has forced me to come to the
conclusion that I will most likely have to drop this deck for a while even though I was falling in love with it. Not only was this the only deck I played
twice last season, but it was the first deck I wanted to pursue once Fate Reforged was spoiled. I just can’t justify dumping any more time into the deck
since Fate Reforged has been revealed. Hopefully someone finds the holes in my list and perfects them so I can once again sleeve up this beauty.
Creatures (18)
Lands (22)
Spells (20)
W/U Heroic hasn’t been one of the most successful decks in the past season, but it sure was popular. Its popularity should increase due to how well
Valorous Stance fits the archetype, but I don’t know if that is going to be enough given how streamlined the format is going to get. R/W Aggro gets
upgrades, Devotion decks get Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and black decks get Crux of Fate. All of these things should make decks like W/U Heroic have a much
more difficult time surviving in this format.
Creatures (31)
- 3 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 3 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Satyr Wayfinder
- 3 Soul of Theros
- 4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
- 4 Siege Rhino
- 3 Whisperwood Elemental
- 3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Lands (22)
Spells (7)
One of the last breakout decks of last season was Four-Color Delve. You would have to play with or against the deck before you understood it, but the deck
actually is great. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is the foundation of the deck. Alongside Commune with the Gods and Satyr Wayfinder, Sidisi not only fills your yard
with cards, but your board with Zombies. This comes in handy whenever you mill over Soul of Theros. Siege Rhino, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and Whisperwood
Elemental help out with giving the deck a significantly-sized army.
Creatures (28)
- 3 Hornet Queen
- 2 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Satyr Wayfinder
- 4 Eidolon of Blossoms
- 2 Doomwake Giant
- 2 Pharika, God of Affliction
- 3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Lands (22)
Spells (10)
Sideboard
The Peach Garden Oath’s G/B Constellation deck got swept under the rug at the World Championships due to Yuuya’s breakout performance with Jeskai Tokens.
It was somewhat sad because of how powerful the strategy actually was. Now there is a decent chance that the deck Reid played at the Players’ Championship
(that guy gets around) is just a superior version of that deck, but I would never shy away from trying to make the two-color version work before moving on
to another color. Tasigur, the Golden Fang gives this deck something it was always missing, which was a cheap permanent that could be aggressive or
defensive. Not only that, but the card can also gain card advantage. All of these things makes this a perfect addition to this strategy.
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (16)
One of the more interesting cards to come out of Fate Reforged has to be Whisperwood Elemental. This card hasn’t gotten much love, but I honestly think it
is going to be amazing. It adds as much power as Wingmate Roc does to the table but has the added bonus of gaining more recruitments every single turn, as
well as protecting the rest of the forces from wrath effects. This goes a long way when playing against control decks in game 1 since now those Sylvan
Caryatids are no longer purely a liability.
Abzan Midrange is poised to have a great week one due to how it always goes. Heck, last year a Jund deck won the first Open of the season without the new
shocklands! It’s just how it goes I guess. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an Abzan Midrange deck winning the whole thing this weekend.
These are the eight decks I have been working on and testing for this upcoming weekend. I honestly don’t know what deck I’m going to play, since I have two
more days to figure that out. I will say that all of these decks have pros and cons, and there is a strong chance I play one of them. I just need to figure
it out soon and tighten up the bolts before I find myself with a bad list of a bad deck for the first week of Standard! I can’t wait to see you all in DC!